KOLKATA: Hours before Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lost from Bhabanipur, the constituency witnessed high-voltage drama between Monday afternoon and evening as she and her rival, BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, converged at the Sakhawat Memorial Girls’ High School, where counting was underway.
Tension gripped the counting centre, with both candidates closely monitoring proceedings. The situation escalated in the evening as a volley of allegations surfaced.
The drama reached its peak around 8 pm when Banerjee emerged from the counting centre and levelled serious accusations against the BJP and Central forces, and that her poll agent had allegedly been forced out of the centre. At that point, she trailed by 538 votes after 16 rounds of counting.
“They have beaten me up and did not allow me to enter the centre. The commission at the behest of the BJP, stopped counting in around 100 seats where we were leading. BJP is a demonic party,” she said.
Targeting the BJP and the Election Commission of India, Banerjee asserted that she would file formal complaints with the authorities concerned. “We will fight back again despite the party suffers a defeat in the elections,” she added before leaving for her Kalighat residence.
The counting process itself saw interruptions, with proceedings halted for more than half an hour from 5:30 pm before resuming in the presence of both candidates.
The race took a dramatic turn over consecutive rounds — Banerjee led by 2,929 votes after 15 rounds, only for Adhikari to overturn the margin and take a lead of over 500 votes after the 16th round.